VETSCAN VS2
Handling lipemia
Lipemia is the milky appearance of serum or plasma caused by increased concentrations of triglyceride-carrying lipoproteins (fat). The presence of lipemia can cause pre-analytical and analytical errors.1 The most common reason for lipemia is that the patient has not been fasted.
Lipemic sample result suppression
If lipemia causes test results to be suppressed, it is recommended to fast the patient for 10-12 hours, collect a new sample, and run the test again.2 A whole blood sample may be centrifuged once (to obtain serum or plasma) and tested, however, a suppression may still occur. Alternatively, the sample can be sent to a commercial laboratory with an ultracentrifuge to be used if needed.
- Fast patient for 10-12 hours
- Collect new sample from the fasted patient
- Test new sample
Option A
- Centrifuge the sample once to obtain serum or plasma
- Test serum or plasma
Option B
- Send sample to a commercial laboratory
Do not re-centrifuge a sample that has already been centrifuged.
A sample without any interference is best practice for reliable interpretation of results on any diagnostic instrument.
Tips for fasting reminders to pet owners:
- Ask your clients to fast their pet for at least 10-12 hours before their appointment
- Incorporate fasting reminders to clients via text, website, emails, newsletters, and phone calls
- Equate to why humans are asked to be fasted for blood testing: many blood test results, whether for pets or for people, can be adversely affected by lipemia
Consistently lipemic patient samples
Some patients may have a disease or condition that regularly results in highly lipemic serum/plasma.
Workflow considerations:
Create a note in the medical record and flag an alert to obtain extra blood for send out to a commercial laboratory when needed.
Centrifuge whole blood samples to visually assess the severity of lipemia and determine whether to test the sample in-clinic or send out to a commercial laboratory.
The Vetscan VS2® reports reliable results along with sample integrity to ensure you make the right clinical decisions for your patients.
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References: 1. Monti, P, Archer, J, BSAVA Manual of Canine and Feline Clinical Pathology, 2016, 11-26 (v2.0) - pg 12 column1, paragraph 1 (p.2) 2. Monti, P, Archer, J, BSAVA Manual of Canine and Feline Clinical Pathology, 2016, 11-26 (v2.0) - Spectrophotometric Interference (p.2) (12-hour ) fast is preferred before general biochemicaltesting. Lipaemia may also interfere with the spectrophotometric assay for haemogl